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The B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) has elected by acclamation a new president for what is expected to be a new era.

Jim Iker, a soft-spoken northerner, comes to the fore as the war-weary union is licking its wounds and looking forward to the May provincial election with the expectation that a union-friendly NDP government will bring an end to a decade of education conflict.

Iker, 60, will take the helm July 1, replacing the fiery Susan Lambert, who was the face of the union as it battled the Liberal government at the bargaining table, in the courtroom, on the picket lines and in schools. When asked to describe her successor in a single word, Lambert called him kind.

Iker’s accession, confirmed Monday during the union’s annual general meeting, not only brings a change in leadership style, but also puts a man in charge of the female-dominated BCTF for the first time since 2004, when Neil Worboys was replaced by Jinny Sims, now an NDP MP. Also acclaimed as first vice-president was Vancouver’s Glen Hansman.

Iker, Hansman and Lambert belong to the same BCTF faction — called the Coalition — that has held the union’s reins since 1999, and Iker suggested his goals won’t differ greatly from Lambert’s. But the atmosphere at the annual general meeting suggests members, like their union, are ready for calm.

Unlike previous years, there were few irate discussions about the Liberal government by the 700 delegates who gathered at a Vancouver hotel for the four-day conference. Even when they went into committee to discuss the current round of bargaining, no angry shouts emanated from behind the closed doors. Some described the mood as mellow.

Although negotiations with the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association are underway and proposals have been exchanged, both sides have agreed not to discuss them publicly. That’s a shift from last year when the association angered the BCTF bargaining team by posting all of its proposals on its website for public viewing.

Another change in bargaining this year is the decision to involve a facilitator, Mark Brown, at the start in the hope of reaching a new contract before the existing deal expires June 30. But the road could still be bumpy because the BCTF has the right to bargain class size and composition this year for the first time in more than a decade and members want a return to limits that were in place back then.

Lambert said she wants immediate redress and is counting on the NDP to deliver. “Public education needs (more) resourcing to the tune of … $300 million a year,” she said in an interview. “That has to be the first priority of any government.”

Ten former BCTF presidents, meanwhile, were circulating a pamphlet urging teachers to vote NDP, saying Leader Adrian Dix has promised free collective bargaining, increased resources to improve class size and composition, changes to the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) in Grade 4 and 7 so that results can’t be used by the Fraser Institute to rank elementary schools and respect for teachers.

The forum planned to discuss late Monday whether the BCTF, which has been cosy with the NDP but officially non-partisan for years, should endorse the Dix team. “It is time to change our strategy,” says the resolution from Vancouver elementary school teachers.

One of the few controversial issues to hit the floor expressed concern about possible health hazards arising from Wi-Fi in schools. But the local that drafted the resolutions proceeded with only one, which asked the union to support members “who are suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity by ensuring that their medical needs are accommodated in the workplace.”

That passed by a 366-259 vote. The resolutions that were abandoned had called on boards of education to stop installing wireless networks in schools where other networking technology is feasible and to designate one school at elementary, middle and secondary levels to be free of Wi-Fi for educators and families who remain worried about negative health effects, even though Health Canada says there are none.

Another difficult issue was a resolution urging the cash-strapped BCTF to stop paying salaries for eight local presidents who became supernumerary after the government amalgamated their districts in 1996. Each year, the union spends about $1 million to maintain two local presidents in six school districts and three in one — Rocky Mountain district. But the resolution was defeated by a 365-299 vote.

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Jim Iker brings new style of leadership to B.C. teachers’ union

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